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Augustus (plural
augusti), Latin for
"majestic," "the increaser," or "venerable", was an Ancient Roman title, which was first held by
Caesar Augustus and subsequently
came to be considered one of the titles of what are now known as
the Roman Emperors. The feminine form
is Augusta.

Although the use of the cognomen "Augustus" as part of
one's name is generally understood to identify emperor Augustus, this is somewhat misleading; "Augustus"
was the most significant name associated with the Emperor, but it
did not actually represent any sort of constitutional office until
the 3rd century under Diocletian. The
Imperial dignity was not an ordinary office, but rather an
extraordinary concentration of ordinary powers in the hands of one
man; "Augustus" was the name that unambiguously identified that
man.

The Greek equivalent is sebastos,
or the hellenization augoustos. After the fall of the
empire the word was not uncommon as a name for men of aristocratic
birth in Europe, especially in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire.

Caesar Augustus

The first "augustus" (and first man counted as a Roman Emperor) was Gaius
Julius Caesar Octavianus, who was given that name by the
Roman Senate on January 16, 27 BC; over the
next forty years, Augustus (as he became known) literally set the
standard by which subsequent Emperors could be recognised, by
accumulating various offices and powers and making his own name
("Augustus") identifiable with the consolidation of powers.
Although the name signified nothing in constitutional theory, it
was recognized as representing all the powers that Caesar Augustus
had accumulated.

As princeps senatus (lit.,
"prince of the senate", "first man of the senate") he was the
leader of the Senate, presiding over the meetings and bringing
forth motions before the body, equivalent to a modern day Prime Minister or American Speaker of the House; as pontifex maximus (lit. "high priest") he was
the chief priest of the Roman state religion; as bearing consularimperium he
had authority equal to the official chief
executive (and eponymous) magistrates within
Rome and as bearing imperium maius he had
authority greater than theirs outside Rome (because of this, he
outranked all provincial governors and was also supreme commander
of all Roman legions); as bearing
tribunicia potestas ("tribunician
power") he had personal inviolability (sacrosanctitas) and
the right to veto any act or proposal by any
magistrate within Rome, acting as the chief officer for the general
legislative body of the people. This concentration of powers
became the ideal model, as presented by the surviving histories, by
which all subsequent Emperors were to have ruled Rome in theory (in
practice this systematic and sophisticated theory gradually lost
any resemblance to reality and completely collapsed in the III and IV centuries,
when the Emperors became rather more reminiscent of oriental
despots than "first among equals").

Octavian "Caesar Augustus" also set the standard by which Roman
Emperors were named. The three titles used by the majority of Roman
Emperors -- "imperator",
"caesar" and
"augustus" -- were all used personally by Caesar Augustus
(he officially renamed himself "Imperator Caesar Augustus"); of
these names, only "Augustus" was unique to the Emperor
himself(although the Emperor's mother or wife could bear the name
"Augusta"), as others could and did bear the titles "Imperator",
and "Caesar" was the name of a clan within the Julian line. It
became customary for an Emperor-designate to adopt the name
NN.Caesar (where NN. is the individual's
personal name) or later NN.Nobilissimus Caesar
("NN. Most Noble Caesar"), and occasionally to be awarded the title
Princeps Iuventutis ("First among the Youth"). Upon
accession to the purple, the new Emperor
usually adopted at least one of these titles and integrated it into
their official name. Later Emperors took to inserting Pius
Felix, "Pious and Blessed", and Invictus,
"Unconquered", into his personal names.

In this usage, by signifying the complete assumption of all
Imperial powers, "Augustus" is roughly analogous to
"Emperor", though a modern reader should be
careful not to project onto the ancients a modern, monarchical
understanding of what an emperor is. As noted, there was no
constitutional office associated with the imperial dignity; the
Emperor's personal authority (dignitas) and influence
(auctoritas) derived from his
position as princeps senatus, and his legal authority
derived from his consulari imperium and tribunicia
potestas; in Roman constitutional theory, one might consider
"augustus" as being shorthand for "princeps senatus et
pontifex maximus consulari imperio et tribuniciae potestate"
(loosely, "Leader of the House and Chief Priest with Consular
Imperium and Tribunician Power"). "Augustus" in and of
itself signified that the individual in question had both the
dignitas and auctoritas to hold these informal
positions.

In many
ways, "augustus" is comparable to the British dignity of prince; it is a
personal title, dignity, or attribute rather than a title of
nobility such as duke or king. The
Emperor was most commonly referred to as princeps, though
as time passed imperator or Caesar became more
common terms.

Women of the Imperial dynasty

Originally, the title Augusta was only
exceptionally bestowed on women of the Imperial dynasties: for
these women it meant a fortification of their worldly power, and a
status near to divinity. There was no qualification with higher
prestige.

The first woman to receive it was Livia
Drusilla, by the last will of her husband Augustus (14 AD). Hence she was known as Julia Augusta. As much as Augustus was the
model for all further Augusti, Julia Augusta was the model for all
further Augustae (plural of Augusta) -- a model that
included scheming for a son to become successor to the throne, and
falling in disgrace under the new Emperor if the scheming had been
successful.

Agrippina minor, becoming "Augusta"
under her last husband Claudius, would
adhere to this model, being sent to death by her son Nero a few years after he had become Emperor.

If the honorific Augustus could be compared to the title
of Prince in more modern societies, then Augusta
would be analogous to the British title of the Princess Royal, a title bestowed by the
reigning monarch in rare cases to a relative that received by this
title prominence among other members of the royal household. Of
course, this is only a partial comparison: Princess Royal
was a title most often received by younger women, while
Augusta was rather reserved for the aged. In this sense,
Augusta also has something of the connotation of
Queen Mother. Further, the
"akin to divinity" does not really translate in any of these more
modern titles or understood honorifics. Augustus was the first
emperor of Rome and the adopted son of Julius Caesar. Born as Gaius
Octavianus. Defeated Mark Antony in 31 B.C. Made emperor in 27 B.C.
Augustus meant, "Majestic,"The Increaser,"Venerable." Rome being
under his power clearly showed that these names matched his skills
and personality.

In the divided Roman Empire

Later, under the Tetrarchy, the rank of
"augustus" referred to the two senior Emperors (in East
and West), while "caesar"
referred to the junior sub-Emperors.

The aforementioned three principal titles of the emperors --
"imperator", "caesar", and "augustus" --
were rendered as autokratōr,
kaisar, and augoustos (or sebastos) in
Greek. The Greek title continued to be used in the Byzantine Empire until its extinction in
1453, although "sebastos" lost its
Imperial exclusivity: persons who were not the Emperor could
receive titles formed from "sebastos", and
"autokratôr" became the exclusive title of the Byzantine
Emperor.

The last Roman emperor to rule in the West, Romulus Augustus became known as
Augustulus, or 'little Augustus,' due to the unimportance
of his reign. The areas of the divided empire were called
provinces. Each province had a governor that took care of taxes and
made sure everything ran smoothly.

Legacy

The Latin title of the Holy Roman
Emperors was usually "Imperator Augustus", which
conveys the modern understanding of "emperor" rather than the
original Roman sense (i.e., the "first citizen" of the Republic).
Although the German word for
"emperor" is "Kaiser", a relatively clear derivative of
"caesar", that was the only one of the three principal
titles of the Latin- and Greek-speaking Roman Emperors that was not
regularly used in Latin by the German-speaking Holy Roman
Emperors.